Aleister Crowley - The Wickedest Man In The World?

From mountaineer and poet to occultist and self-proclaimed "Great Beast 666," the life of Aleister Crowley is a labyrinth of contradictions. This podcast delves deep into the man dubbed "The Wickedest Man in the World" by the tabloids, separating the myth from the man and exploring the forces that shaped this enigmatic figure.

Born into a wealthy, fundamentalist Christian family in Victorian England, Edward Alexander Crowley rebelled against his strict upbringing to embrace a world of esotericism and free will. We'll trace his journey from a brilliant but unruly student at Cambridge to his initiation into the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, where he quickly made a name for himself—and just as many enemies, including fellow poet W.B. Yeats.

Follow Crowley's globe-trotting adventures, from his pioneering mountaineering expeditions on K2 to his mystical experiences in Egypt that led to the creation of his own religion, Thelema, and its central tenet: "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." We'll explore his controversial "Abbey of Thelema" in Sicily, and his later years marked by poverty and drug addiction.

Crowley was a master of self-promotion and a magnet for scandal, but his influence on Western esotericism, from modern Paganism to the counterculture of the 1960s, is undeniable. We'll examine his lasting legacy, from his writings and the creation of the Thoth tarot deck to his surprising appearance on the cover of a certain Beatles album. Was he a charlatan, a visionary, or a misunderstood genius? Join us as we unravel the tangled life of Aleister Crowley, a man who continues to fascinate and horrify to this day.

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